Recovering from Tragedy by Helping Others
Out of The Darkness
ArizonaWoman September 2005
by Kim Hill
Lisa Schultz and Alissa Scott know all about saving people. Schultz, 49, is a former police officer, and Scott, 39, worked as a supervisor with Child Protective Services. Both women, however, wondered if they would be able to save themselves from crushing grief when their husbands, both Phoenix police officers, were killed in the line of duty.
Scott was six months pregnant when her husband, Wayne, died in September 2002. The 10-year department veteran was en route to assist with a fatal DUI investigation when another driver pulled out in front of Wayne's motorcycle. He was 35.
When a police officer dies, a number of organizations from the police unions to the department itself rush to assist the family. "These organizations provided an amazing amount of help," says Scott, who lives in Cave Creek. What Scott realized, however, as days turned to weeks, is that as much as she appreciated the financial assistance, what she really needed to help her cope was an extra set of hands - someone to do the things Wayne used to do like the pool cleaning and the yard work.
As a single parent for her baby daughter, Katianna, Scott was still grieving when Phoenix police officer Don Schultz died. The 20-year veteran was just months from retirement when he drowned in a canal in May 2004 as he was searching for evidence in a murder investigation. Somehow, the experienced diver got separated from his tender line and pulled into the canal gate. He was 43.
Scott contacted Don's widow, Lisa, whom she had never met. Their common grief soon turned to friendship, including many conversations about how helpful it would be to have some short-term help with household chores and errands.
Then tragedy struck the Phoenix Police Department again. Officers Eric White and Jason Wolfe were shot and killed while responding to call in an apartment complex in August 2004. Scott and Schultz attended the funerals and prepared condolence bags filled with expressions of their sympathy, including their phone numbers, for the White and Wolfe families. Later, both Colleen White and Tara Wolfe contacted Schultz and Scott.
"We began wondering if we could do something like this on a grander scale," Scott said. She and Schultz formed the Survivor Help Network, which assists surviving families with day-to-day needs such as housecleaning, landscape services, animal care, long-distance phone cards, meals, child care, and other services.
The goal is to enable families to deal with their loss without the concerns of everyday life. Scott says she's motivated by the legacy she's leaving for Katianna, so the little girl understands that some good materialized from her father's death.
So far the survivors have provided assistance only for Phoenix-area families, but their unltimate goal is to make the program available throughout the state. "We never want to see another officer killed in the line of duty, yet we know it will happen," says Schultz. "All we want to do is help people get over those little hurdles for a couple of months when they are in a fog."
Schultz says the time she spends on the program helps her more than it does the other survivors.
"There is no rule book on how to deal with your husband's death," she adds. "But when I have helped other people, it seems to help me a little, too."